Livestock management system and method

ABSTRACT

A herd management system for monitoring and managing the movements of animals within a herd comprises a user interface for defining one or more virtual fences for each to comprise a paddock, a plurality of wireless tags affixed to the monitored animals, and a network server for managing communications between the user interface and wireless communication with the tags. The tags include devices for stimulating the animal to move as desired by the herd management system, including staying within a paddock or moving from one paddock to another as guided by the system.

RELATED APPLICATION

The present application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication S.N. 62/661,040 filed Apr. 22, 2018 and having the sametitle as the present application. That application is incorporatedherein by reference as though set forth in full.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to the field of livestockmanagement devices, systems and methods, and more particularly relatesto systems and methods for livestock tracking and confinement usinganimal-worn tags in communication with a network server.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Livestock management, such as for cattle, has historically involvednothing more sophisticated that physical fences defining one or moregrazing ranges, or paddocks, together with sufficient personnel, animalsand machinery to move the livestock from one paddock to another atappropriate times. More recently, ear tags have been used to identifyeach piece of livestock. Still more recently, the general notion of someform of electronic monitoring of livestock has been proposed, and someform of virtual fencing has also been proposed.

Electrically-charged fences have also been developed to define theperimeter of areas within which animals are free to wander. Also knownare wireless collars which shock an animal such as a dog when triggeredby a perimeter wire.

Notwithstanding these recent developments in the monitoring and fencingof livestock, many issues remain to be resolved and improved upon.Electric fences cannot be readily moved, and thus, for example,adjusting grazing areas for cattle is not feasible. Even for systemsusing virtual fences, the capability to encourage animals to stay withinthe defined area has been ineffective, both in terms of stimulus appliedto the animal and the ability to operate autonomously from a centralcontrol point. In addition, existing systems have been unable to monitoranimal characteristics in a manner that permits learning animal behaviorpatterns and characterization of animal behavior including health andherd interaction. Further, power requirements have proven extremelychallenging for herds that are allowed to roam over substantialdistances.

As a result, there has been a need for systems, devices, and methodsconfigured to provide improved livestock management that addresses theabove issues, as well as others.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention substantially addresses many of the shortcomingsof the prior art. More specifically, a network server communicateswirelessly, through one or more gateways, with a plurality of animaltags, typically one per animal. A user device, such as a smartphone,tablet, laptop or desktop computer running an application program allowsa user to define a paddock in which one or more animals are permitted tograze, together with other instructions for monitoring the behavior ofthe animals.

The tags monitor the location and various physical characteristics ofthe animal wearing the tag. In an embodiment, the tags include aprocessor and memory together with an operating program responsive toinstructions received from the network server as well as various sensorsincorporated into the tag. The sensors, in an embodiment, comprise GPS,accelerometer, altimeter, magnetometer, thermometer, heart rate monitor,microphone, and low battery. In addition, in at least some embodiments,the tag includes a mechanism responsive to instructions from the tag'sprocessor for stimulating the tagged animal, which can comprise, forexample, electric shock, sound feedback, vibration feedback, RFstimulus, thermal stimulus, or other forms suitable for causing a changein behavior of the tagged animal.

In a typical embodiment, the user defines a virtual paddock such as bydefining a set of vertices in the form of GPS coordinates. The virtualpaddock definition is forwarded to the network server. The networkserver transmits the paddock boundaries to each of the animal tags,where the defined boundaries are stored. In the event an animalapproaches a boundary of the virtual paddock, a stimulus is generated bythe tag to cause the animal to change direction and stay within thepaddock boundaries. In some embodiments, it can be desirable to define aboundary zone somewhat within the actual boundary, where the stimulus tothe animal is initiated, for example at a low initial level, upon entryinto the boundary zone, and then increases until the animal's directionchanges back toward the central area of the paddock. In someembodiments, a maximum stimulus is applied, and an alert sent to thenetwork server, upon the animal reaching the boundary.

In an embodiment, to ensure good animal welfare, should the animalcontinue through the boundary and is unable to be turned back toward thecentral area of the paddock, the stimulus can be discontinued to preventinjury to the animal. In an alternative embodiment, should the animalcontinue outside the boundary, the stimulus can be turned off for aperiod of time to de-stress the animal, and then reapplied eithercontinuously, pulsed repetitively, or applied in differing combinationsto encourage the animal to return to within the paddock boundary. Instill other embodiments, especially in environments with topologicaldangers, risk of predators, or other environmental concerns that impactthe animal's welfare, it may be desirable to maintain application of thestimulus in some form or combination. In each of the above alternatives,the alert sent to the network server can be canceled upon the animal'sreturn to the virtual paddock.

Herds are typically moved from one paddock to another to avoidovergrazing. To that end, the user may also define one or moreadditional virtual paddocks, together with a schedule for moving theherd from the first virtual paddock to each subsequent virtual paddock.To move the herd from one paddock to the next, a series of incrementalvirtual paddocks can be automatically defined or based on user input,and the animals within the now old, first virtual paddock are stimulatedto move in the direction of the first incremental paddock, then thesecond, and so on until the animals reach the new virtual paddock. Theprocess then returns to maintaining the animals within the boundaries ofthe new virtual paddock.

In addition to providing a virtual paddock for herd management, thepresent invention further includes the ability to monitor overall herdbehavior as well as the behavior of specific animals or groups ofanimals. Thus, various combinations of sensors can be used to identifyweight gain, estrus, distress, animal interaction and herd dynamics.

These and other features of the present invention can be betterappreciated from the following Detailed Description, taken together withthe appended Figures.

THE FIGURES

FIG. 1A illustrates in schematic form an exemplary overall view of anembodiment of the livestock management system of the present invention.

FIG. 1B illustrates in state machine form the various states of thesystem.

FIG. 1C illustrates in simplified flow diagram form the overalloperation of the system.

FIG. 1D illustrates an animal tag in accordance with the inventionaffixed to the ear of a cow.

FIG. 1E shows in exploded perspective view the constituent components ofan embodiment of the animal tag of FIG. 1D.

FIG. 1F illustrates an alternative embodiment of the animal tag of thepresent invention.

FIG. 1G illustrates a connective strap the cooperates with the tag ofFIG. 1F to ensure good positioning and retention of the tag of FIG. 1F.

FIG. 1H illustrates an example of a ranch divided into a plurality ofpaddocks.

FIG. 2A illustrates in block diagram form an embodiment of the hardwarearchitecture of the animal tag of the present invention.

FIG. 2B illustrates in schematic diagram form the hardware architectureof FIG. 2A.

FIG. 2C illustrates an alternative embodiment of the circuitry of FIG.2B.

FIGS. 3A-3F illustrates a paddock defined by a virtual fence inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention and incremental moves torelocate a herd from a first paddock to a second.

FIG. 3G illustrates in block diagram form an embodiment of the softwarearchitecture of the present invention.

FIG. 4A generally illustrates in flow diagram form the overall softwarearchitecture of an embodiment of the system of the present invention.

FIG. 4B generally illustrates, in process flow diagram form, anembodiment of the operation of the animal tag of FIG. 2B includingstoring paddock and related information received from the network,sensing location and other data specific to the particular animal towhich the tag is attached, determining whether an alarm conditionexists, reporting collected data and/or alarms back to the network, and,if appropriate, stimulating the animal to cause their repositioning.

FIG. 5 illustrates the core software loop of the tag of an embodiment ofthe invention when the animal is within bounds.

FIG. 6A illustrates an example of the stimulator update cycle of the tagof FIG. 1D.

FIG. 6B illustrates an updating of the position of a tagged animal.

FIG. 6C illustrates an embodiment of stimulation level computation.

FIG. 6D illustrates the process of applying updated stimulus to a taggedanimal.

FIGS. 7A-7D illustrate an embodiment of the process for defining avirtual fence associated with a paddock.

FIGS. 8A-8C illustrate an alternative embodiment for defining a virtualfence comprising vectors to define edges.

FIGS. 9A-9D illustrate an embodiment of the design of a paddock inaccordance with the embodiment of FIGS. 8A-8C.

FIGS. 10A-10G illustrates the process of moving a herd from one paddockdefinition to another using a paddock design methodology in accordancewith the embodiments of FIGS. 8A-8C and 9A-9D.

FIG. 11 illustrates in state diagram form the process illustrated inplan view in FIGS. 10A-10G.

FIG. 12 illustrates the use of the animal's heading for animalmanagement.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring first to FIG. 1 , the overall structure of an embodiment ofthe system of the present invention can be better appreciated. A cattleranch 100 comprises a plurality of grazing areas, or paddocks indicatedat 105A-B. In one or more of the paddocks, and in some cases all ofthem, a plurality of livestock is maintained. Each of the animals hasaffixed to it at least one animal tag 110, typically affixed to one ear(or both, if multiple tags), as a nose ring attached to or through thenasal septum, or around the neck as a collar. “Tags” and “collars” maybe used synonymously in some instances hereinafter. In an embodiment,each animal tag is assigned a unique identifier. The animal tags orcollars each communicate with at least one gateway 115A, where one ormore such gateways are provisioned relative to the paddocks to permitwireless communication therebetween. In some embodiments, gatewaybridges 115B can also be used. Each of the gateways connects to anetwork server 120, either wirelessly or via wired connection. In someembodiments, the network server 120 is configured as a communicationshead end cloud controller 120A together with an application backofficeserver 120B, configured in the cloud which may be, in someimplementations, a private cloud.

The gateways can be powered by any convenient means, including solar,battery, line, or any combination thereof. Depending upon theconfiguration, the network server can comprise one or more machines orservers, and can be either locally maintained or provided as acloud-based service. A user of the system communicates with the networkserver via any suitable means, for example either a PC-based webapplication or a mobile application, indicated at 125. The web or mobileapplication permits the user to configure the operating parameters ofthe system, including defining the geometry and location of thepaddocks, as more fully explained hereinafter. In an embodiment, the webor mobile application also provides analysis of the data retrieved fromthe animal tags to permit monitoring of the condition and location ofeach of the animals and of the herd as a group.

In an embodiment, the animal tags 110 communicate with the one or moregateways 115 using a Long Range low power wireless communicationsprotocol, such as LoRaWAN promulgated by the LoRa Alliance. It will beappreciated by those skilled in the art that the system of tags 110 andassociated servers comprise an embedded, power-constrained andbandwidth-constrained environment, that represents significantchallenges and imposes significantly different design considerationswhen compared with conventional wireless environments Gateways 115A canbe implemented on modest hardware such as, for example, a CPU configuredwith 512 GB RAM and 20 GB SSD or other data storage such as a hard disk,running an Ubuntu operating system. In some embodiments a virtual CPU[vCPU] can be assigned rather than a dedicated CPU. Gateway bridges 115Bcan be implemented using UDP or, in implementations desiring greatermessaging reliability, TCP or other protocol and, in terms of hardware,can be configured similarly to a gateway 115A. Messaging between agateway 115A and a gateway bridge 115B can be by any suitable messagingprotocol, and for implementations requiring a small code footprint orhaving limited networth bandwidth can be, for example, Mosquito MQTT[Message Queuing Telemetry Transport] operating on top of TCP/IP. Insome embodiments, the server 120A can be configured as a LoRa Serverwith a hardware configuration essentially the same as the gateways 115A,again with an Ubuntu operating system. The server 120B, operating in thecloud, can in some embodiments be a LoRa App Server, communicating withthe server 120A via a remote procedure call protocol such as GPRC. TheLoRa App Server communicates via any suitable protocol with a herdmanager application running on a user device such as a personalcomputer, tablet, smartphone or similar device. Communications betweenthe LoRa App Server and the herd manager application can be via anysuitable protocol, including but not limited to GPRC/JSON REST, or MQTT.The backend software, in some embodiments maintained in the cloud asshown by servers 120A-120B, can be thought of as herd manager softwaresince it directs the operation of the gateways and, in response to userinput, transmits paddock definitions to the tags in the form of avirtual fence definition.

Referring next to FIG. 1B, the general operation of the system of FIG.1A including its computer programming can be better appreciated. Ingeneral, the software can be appreciated as cooperating with thehardware portion of the system to create a finite state machine. In anembodiment, the states can be Boot, Test, Train, Confine, Relocate, andTrack, each of which will be more fully understood from the remainder ofthis Specification but can be generally appreciated from FIG. 1B. Onpower up, the system boots, step 123, and once loaded the tags and theremainder of the system enter test mode, 126. If the animal has notpreviously had an animal tag, the state machine enters training mode,129, where the animal is trained to respond to stimuli generated by thetag. If the animal cannot be trained, or the test shows the animal tagis broken, an error occurs, 132, and an error message is forwarded tothe server 120. In most cases, the tag works and the animal responds asintended to the tag 110, in which case the state machine advances toTrack mode, 135. If the animal associated with a given tag has alreadybeen trained—i.e., is a “veteran”—the training step can be skipped andthe state machine advances directly from test 126 to track 135. When avirtual fence has been defined by the user and transmitted by the herdmanager software, the state machine enters the confine state, 138. Whenit is desired to move the animals from a first paddock, defined by itsfirst virtual fence, to a second paddock, defined by a different virtualfence, the state machine enters a relocate state 141. The relocate statecan include multiple virtual fence definitions, typically although notnecessarily representing incremental movements from the first paddock tothe new paddock. Once the animals are relocated, the state machinereverts to the confine state.

Referring next to FIG. 1C, a generalized view of the process flow ofsystem of FIGS. 1A-1B can be better appreciated. Initial deployment endswith the system in basic tracking mode, shown at 155, where GPS signalsfrom the animal tags are monitored on a regular basis, for example aboutevery 30 minutes. The herd manager software, typically maintained onserver 120 which may be in the cloud as shown by servers 120A-120B,downloads a command for the devices to enter a training state, shown at160, with the objective of training the animals to respond to stimuligenerated by the animal tags. The stimuli can be vibration, shock,sound, or any other suitable form that causes the desired response fromthe animal being managed.

Once the animal training cycle is complete the process returns to basictracking mode 155. The herd manager software downloads a command toenable the definition of a first virtual fence, shown at 165, whichcauses the virtual fence to be enabled within the animal tags, shown at170. The formulation of the virtual fence definition is discussed inmuch greater detail hereinafter. Basically, the virtual fence definitioncomprises a paddock defined by its perimeter either in terms oflongitude and latitude data for the vertices, or defined as a series ofgrid points, or as a series of vectors, or in any other suitable fashionfor delineating a controlled area within which an animal may bemonitored and also may be stimulated to move in a desired direction.Tracking continues, as shown by the loop from step 170 back to step 155.

Once the first virtual fence definition is downloaded and enabled, theherd manager software can direct a scheduled move of one or more of theanimals, or can direct a specific animal to move in order for thatanimal to be isolated, as shown at 175. The directed move is implementedvia the tags generating a stimulus to each of the selected animals, asshown at 180. In addition, animals that approach the perimeter of thevirtual fence are stimulated to turn back toward the more central areaof the paddock definition. In at least some embodiments the need forthat stimulus is determined by the tag independently of the remainder ofthe system. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the herd managersoftware can communicate with the tag via the gateways and direct thetag to generate the stimulus.

Eventually, it will be desirable to move the herd to another paddock. Toachieve this, in an embodiment a new virtual fence definition isdownloaded from the herd manager, as shown at 185, causing a new paddockto be defined. Alternatively, one or more paddock definitions may havebeen previously defined and downloaded to the tags/collars, with thetransitions from one paddock to another set by a schedule. The schedulecan be downloaded from the server to the tags at any convenient time,for example either at the time the paddock definitions are downloaded tothe tag, at the time the movement is to be initiated, or anyintermediate time. The animals are then moved from the first paddock tothe second paddock, as shown and discussed in greater detailhereinafter. Tracking continues, as shown by the loop back to step 155.

Referring next to FIG. 1D, an animal tag 110 is shown affixed to the earof a cow. Alternatively, a tag can be configured as a collar to be wornaround the neck of the monitored animal, as shown in FIGS. 1G-1H anddiscussed in greater detail below. In some embodiments, two tags can beused, one on each ear.

Referring next to FIG. 1E, the structure of the animal tag 110 can bebetter appreciated. A central support structure 1005 comprises twoparallel plates sufficiently spaced apart as to permit the structure tobe passed over the ear of a monitored animal. The plates are rigidlyconnected at one end, and a spring clip 1010 is positioned at theopposite end, such as a vertex, to maintain the tag in place on the ear.For a triangular tag as shown in FIG. 1E, a logic board 1015 comprisesthe circuitry of FIGS. 2A-2C, discussed hereinafter. The logic board1015 also provides a mount for an antenna 1017, a transformer 1020 aswell as a audio source such as a buzzer 1025 and a transducer forvibration such as an eccentrically rotating mass (ERM) 1030. A bezel1033 sandwiches the logic board 1015 against the support structure 1005.On the opposite side of the support structure 1005 is a battery 1035 forpowering the logic board. In some embodiments, a solar panel 1040 isimplemented to charge the battery 1035. A pair of shock electrodes 1045are positioned in orifices 1050 in the support structure 1005 such thatthe electrodes are firmly in contact with the ear of the monitoredanimal when the tag is clipped to the animal's ear such as shown in FIG.1D. A solar panel bezel 1055 and suitably transparent cover 1060sandwich the solar panel, shock electrodes and battery against thesupport structure 1005. In at least some embodiments, the assembled tag110 is substantially weatherproof or at least weather-resistant.

Referring next to FIGS. 1F and 1G, an alternative embodiment of the tag110 is shown, configured as a collar to be worn around the neck of thecow or other animal. In an embodiment, such as that shown in FIG. 1G at1065, a tag 110 is disposed at an end of a strap or connector 1075, anda battery (or battery pack) 135 is disposed at the other end of theconnector 1075, typically within a suitable housing where the batteryhousing 1035 is connected to the tag via a suitable conductor cable1080. The elements of the tag 110 of FIG. 1F that are common to the tag110 of FIG. 1E are shown with like reference numerals and havesubstantially the same functions. FIG. 1G shows a strap 1085 with weight1090 and male/female connectors of any suitable type for connecting tothe tag of FIG. 1F, such that the combination encircles the neck of theanimal being monitored. It will also be appreciated that a still furtherembodiment of the structure shown in FIG. 1F can comprise two tags, oneat either end of connector 1075. In either alternative, the strap 1085may provide the battery 1035 shown in FIG. 1F, or may provide two ormore batteries, such as an additional battery as shown at either end ofthe strap in FIG. 1G. The latter configuration is well suited toembodiments having a tag at either end of connector 1075. The weight1090, typically immovably affixed to the strap by retainers 1090A,counterbalances the combination of the strap, tag(s) and batteries suchthat the tag (or tags) stay properly positioned around the neck of theanimal. The length of the strap 1085 can be adjustable to permit a goodfit with the neck of the animal, care being taken to ensure the strapcannot catch on a fence or other obstruction and injure the animal.Seals 1087 cooperate with housings 1033A-D provide a substantiallywaterproof seal. Various bolts, washers, and nuts retain the componentsin place.

FIG. 1H illustrates a ranch generally indicated at 1065 is divided intoa plurality of paddocks 1070A-n. Areas of the ranch that representunsafe locations for the managed animals, such as rivers and lakesbeyond where the animals may drink can be either excluded or included inthe paddock definitions, depending upon the implementation. As will bebetter described hereinafter, one aspect of the present invention isenable the remote movement of a herd of monitored animals such as cowsto be moved from one paddock to another with minimal if any direct humaninteraction with the herd, such as cowboys, men on horses or machinery,etc. As described in greater detail in connection with FIGS. 3A-3F and7A-7D, the paddocks are used in at least the confine and relocate statesshown in FIG. 1B.

Referring next to FIGS. 2A-2B, the hardware configuration of the animaltag 110 can be better appreciated, with each figure providing adifferent level of detail. With particular reference to FIG. 2A, in anembodiment, the tag is powered by a battery 200 and, in addition oralternatively, can also include photo-voltaic (i.e., solar) chargingpanels 205 combined with rechargeable batteries, or other suitableenergy storage means such as a super-capacitor. A processor such as amicrocontroller 210 receives input such as, for example, paddockdefinitions, from the servers (120 in FIG. 1 ) via wireless link 215.The processor 210 also receives locally generated input from one of moresensors including but not limited to GPS 220, accelerometer or othermotion sensors 225, magnetometer 230, thermometer 235, heart rate sensor240, etc. The sensors provide monitoring for numerous aspects of theanimal's condition and location, including health related issues, stepcount, chewing cud, eating, mating, running or walking, sleeping, and soforth. Data, command programs, fence definitions and other relevantinformation is stored on storage 245. When the system is in thetraining, confine, or relocate states, the processor can cause astimulus to be generated to cause a response in the animal beingmonitored. The stimulus can take the form of an electric shock, avibration, an audible alarm or other stimulus, shown at 250 sufficientto cause a desired response in the animal. Shock electrodes 255, oftencomprising the physical electrodes together with a boost circuit fed bythe battery 200, connect the tag to the animal either through the ear orthrough a collar. Data from the tag can also be forwarded to the servers120 via the wireless link 215.

Referring next to FIG. 2B, in an embodiment the tag 110 can be seen togenerally comprise a Controller Module 260 and a Stimulus Module 263.For clarity, elements of FIG. 2B which correspond to elements of FIG. 2Aare given the same reference numeral. The controller module comprises aprocessor or microcontroller 210 which can be, for example, anSTM32L151C. The microcontroller 210 receives a clock signal from acrystal or oscillator reference that is used as a time source. Wirelessaccess to the gateways 115A can be provided by a long range [LoRa]wireless module 215, such as an SX1276IMLTRT connected to themicrocontroller 210 and an RF (TX/RX) Switch 266 for bidirectionalcommunication. While the embodiment shown preferably uses a wirelessmodule that complies with the LoRa standards to conserve power whilestill providing long range connectivity, other types of wirelesscommunications modules can be used in other implementations. A GPSmodule 220 also provides input to the microcontroller 210 to provide theanimal's geographic location data, typically in a representation oflongitude and latitude.

Still further, the microcontroller 210 receives additional inputs fromone or more accelerometers, shown as G Sensor 225 in FIG. 2B. In anembodiment, the G sensor comprises at least one three-axis accelerometerand may comprise several two-axis or three-axis accelerometers in anycombination suitable to the embodiment. A temperature sensor 235provides temperature data to the microcontroller 210. In an embodiment,the temperature sensor can comprise one or more temperature sensors, atleast one of which is configured to be placed immediately proximate tothe skin of the animal's ear so that the temperature data from thatsensor reflects the animal's temperature. If other temperature sensorsare used in a given embodiment, such other sensors can monitor ambientthermal conditions, internal temperatures, and so on. A buzzer 250 canprovide audio stimulus to a monitored animal. A storage device such asEEPROM 269 enables programs, data, or any combination to be storedexternally to the microcontroller 210. An 10 expander module 272 can beprovided to increase the number of 10 ports. Power to the ControllerModule 260 is generally supplied by battery and associated batteryregulator distribution network 200, which, it at least someimplementations, will also supply power to the Stimulus Module 263.

The Stimulus Module 263 generally comprises a vibration portion 278 anda shock portion 281. The vibration portion 278 comprises a haptic driver284 such as a TIDRV2605 together with an eccentric rotating massactuator (ERM) or a linear resonant actuator (LRM) 285. The vibrationportion receives command input from the microcontroller 210 and powerfrom the battery regulator distribution network. The shock portion 281comprises a capacitor charger 287 such as an LT3420EMS driving atransformer and associated circuitry 290 powering a capacitor 293. Aswitch 296 supplies a high voltage shock to the animal via shockelectrodes 255, also seen in FIG. 1E. The haptic driver 284 andcapacitor charger 287 are controlled from the microcontroller 210. Insome embodiments, a separate battery and associated power distributionnetwork 299 can be implemented for association with the Stimulus Module263.

With reference next to FIG. 2C, an alternative embodiment to the circuitof FIG. 2B can be appreciated, where like elements have like referencenumerals. Thus, processor 210, which can be a microcontroller such asSTM32L151R, receives regulated power, typically from a battery or othersource [not shown] through regulators 200B. Further, the processor 210receives and transmits LoRa-compatible signals from/to LoRa module 215,after level translation through digital level translator 215B. RF switch266 switches between send and receive modes as appropriate. RF switch266, controlled by processor 210, switches a LoRa RF antenna, typicallytuned for 915 Mhz signals, between receive and transmit. Similarly, GPSsignals are received in a low noise amplifier 2220B from a GPS antennaand sent to GPS module 220. The GPS module 220 thereafter transmits itsoutput to processor 210. The processor 210 also receives input fromaccelerometer/magnetometer 225, indicative of the movement and headingof the monitored animal.

In appropriate circumstances as detailed elsewhere herein, the processor210 of the embodiment of FIG. 2C provides one or more of haptic, audio,visual or electric shock outputs, as indicated by reference numerals272B, 250B, 296 and 250A, respectively. Additional types of outputs canalso be provided for through expansion port 272A. From FIG. 2C, theembodiment of the electric shock module 250A can be seen to comprise aboost voltage circuit 292A that feeds primary voltage boost enable logic292C, which cooperates with tank circuit 2926 to provide an AC signalsuitable for boosting in transformer 290 to a suitably high voltage, lowamperage signal appropriate for stimulating the monitored animal to moveor otherwise change its behavior as desired by the system. The highvoltage output is conditioned in module 294, with contacts 255 providingelectrical connection to the monitored animal.

Referring next to FIGS. 3A-3G, one embodiment of the virtual fenceaspect of the present invention as it relates to the confine andrelocate states can be better understood. As noted previously, the basicobjective of the virtual fence of the present invention is to cause amonitored animal to remain within an area defined by the virtual fence,or what is referred to herein as a paddock. A paddock can be anyconvenient shape, with any number of vertices, as shown in FIGS. 3A-3B.The virtual fence is basically defined by drawing segments from vertexto vertex. The segments can be linear or other desired shape, or acombination. Thus, for the paddock 300 shown in FIGS. 3A, five verticesare connected by straight lines Line, to Line_(n), in this case withn=5.

For FIG. 3B, six vertices are defined. Within the outer edges of thepaddock are one or more boundary zones or regions. In the example shownin FIGS. 3A and 3B, three boundary regions 305, 310, 315 are shown. Thelocation of a monitored animal such as a cow is shown by a circular dot[one in FIG. 3A, several in FIG. 3B], and the distance from the animalto each of the sides of the paddock is determined in the processor 210.Depending upon the orientation of the magnetometer 230 and GPS, thedirection of movement of the animal can be combined with their locationto determine whether the animal is approaching a boundary zone. In theconfine state, the animal is not permitted to exit the paddock. If theanimal is approaching the nearest boundary zone, monitoring can beincreased. Upon entry into a boundary zone, a first stimulus can beapplied to induce the animal to return to a more central location withinthe paddock. If the animal does not turn, but instead proceeds into thesecond boundary zone, a different or more intense stimulus, or somecombination, can be applied, again to induce the animal to return to amore central portion of the paddock. Should the animal continue into theoutermost boundary zone, a further stimulus can be applied. As discussedin connection with FIG. 2A-2B, the various stimuli can be audible,vibratory, or electric shock.

In the unlikely event that the animal proceeds past the outermostboundary, and thus outside the paddock defined by the virtual fence, amessage can be sent to the herd manager software operating on the serverto alert the user to the error condition. In some embodiments, if ananimal continues out of the boundary zone and becomes uncontrollable,all stimulation will be disabled to maintain animal welfare. Upon animalreturn to a paddock through natural or man-made means the virtual fencecontainment stimulation will be re-enabled. In an alternativeembodiment, should the animal continue outside the boundary, thestimulus can be turned off for a period of time to de-stress the animal,and then reapplied either continuously, pulsed repetitively, or appliedin differing combinations to encourage the animal to return to withinthe paddock boundary. In still other embodiments, especially inenvironments with topological dangers, risk of predators, or otherenvironmental concerns that impact the animal's welfare, it may bedesirable to maintain application of the stimulus in some form orcombination. In each of the above alternatives, the alert sent to thenetwork server can be canceled upon the animal's return to the virtualpaddock.

While the boundary zones shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B are concentric, itwill be appreciated that the zones need not be concentric in all casesand may vary to take into account geographic variation, such as ponds,lakes, or rivers, or differing portions of the landscape such as a rockface or other variation in terrain. In such situations, where anon-concentric boundary zone is desirable, the variation can be either ashorter distance between transitions from one zone to the next, or fewerzones altogether for a portion of the fenced area.

Referring next to FIGS. 3C-3F, the Relocate state discussed briefly inFIG. 1B can be better understood. The Relocate state refers to movingone or more animals from a first location to a second location. Specificanimals can be selected based on the unique identifier associated witheach tag. However, in most cases multiple animals, and likely an entireherd, will be moved so that they cease grazing in a first paddock andbegin grazing in a different paddock, with both paddocks defined bytheir respective virtual fences. Thus, for a ranch 325 has a firstpaddock 330, with a group of animals within the paddock. The user electsto have the system of the present invention move the animals from thepaddock 330 to a new location 335. The Relocate state comprises defininga series of incremental changes in the paddock definition, shown in FIG.3F, by with the herd is induced to move from paddock 330 to paddock 335.For each incremental move 340-355, the new incremental paddockdefinition is calculated by the animal tag as a series of linearmovements of the center of the paddock down a vector path defined by theuser in the herd manager at the time of scheduling the animal movement.The path and scheduled linear moves are transmitted once to the animaltags of the animals selected for movement prior to the scheduledbeginning of the movement.

Once the schedule begins the animal tag virtually moves the paddockcenter to new locations on the vector path and the paddock boundariesmaintain their positions relative to the paddock center as it is movedalong the vector path. The animals are then stimulated as discussedabove to move in the desired direction. In most cases, the majority ofthe herd will begin moving with little stimulus. For herd animals suchas cows, the initiation of a movement by the herd is typicallysufficient to induce most of the herd members to start to move as well.However, in the event that one or more animals do not respond quickly tothe stimulus from the tag, or to the overall movement of the herd, asettling time is implemented while those outlier animals are stimulatedto return to within the area defined by the incremental paddock, asshown in FIGS. 3D and 3E. Once the herd is collected within the newincremental paddock, the next sequential incremental paddock iscalculated by each tag to continue moving the paddock down the pathprogrammed at the time of scheduling the move. The process iteratesuntil the herd arrives at the new paddock 335.

The foregoing process can be appreciated in flow diagram form shown inFIG. 3G. The process initiates at step 360 with the receipt and storageat the server 120 of a new paddock definition, a vector path for theherd to follow during movement, and a schedule of how far to move downthe vector path for each incremental padock from the user. The herdmanager software operating in the server 120 then transmits the path,the incremental schedule to move for each iteration of the path, and thenew paddock area to the animals selected for movement, which causes theboundaries and boundary zones to be redefined for the tags worn by thoseanimals, as shown at 380. The selected animals are then stimulated tomove to the newly defined incremental paddock. Once the selected animalshave moved to the incremental paddock, including any necessary settlingtime to allow outlier animals to return to the herd, the processdetermines whether more increments exist, step 390. If more incrementsare required before reaching the destination paddock, the process loopsto step 380 and iterates. When the animals reach the destination paddock335, no more iterates await and the process ends at step 390.

In an alternative embodiment, each of the incremental paddocks can bepredefined and downloaded in advance from the Herd Manager, for exampleat the time of scheduling of the moves, or the boundaries of eachsuccessive incremental paddock can be downloaded during the scheduledmove. Still another alternative is to calculate the boundary of eachincremental paddock separately rather than have the centers of eachincrement follow a vector path as described above. A still furtheralternative embodiment is described hereinafter in connection with FIGS.8A-8C and

Referring next to FIGS. 4A-4B, the operation of an embodiment of thesystem can be understood in greater detail. As previously discussed, thesystem can generally be considered to be an integration of three majorgroups: a user device including an input/output interface, a networkserver layer that includes one or more network servers together with oneor more wireless gateways and bridges, and an animal tag layer. The userdevice, as noted previously, can be a PC, smartphone, tablet, ordedicated device, where the user enters fence definitions, operatingparameters and instructions and receives status information and otherdata. The network layer receives the user inputs and, as appropriate,stores those inputs and converts them into commands that are eithermanaged at the server levels or are transmitted via the gateways andbridges to the animal tags. The animal tags, each of which is a uniqueID and one or more of which are attached to each animal, receive dataand commands from the server and provide status and other data back tothe server. Further, the tags are capable of operating essentiallyindependently of the server for extended periods, as long as themonitored animal stays within the defined paddock and no other commandsare received from the network. While operating substantiallyindependently, the tags may send back status information that is used bythe network server for herd and animal analytics, which in turn mayresult in information being transmitted from the network layer to theuser device or devices.

With reference specifically to FIG. 4A, which omits for purposes ofclarity typical boot and self-test processes, at 400 a user inputs, orselects previously stored, coordinates or other definitional informationto establish one or more virtual fences, each of which forms theperimeter of their respective paddocks. In addition, the user has theoption of setting or selecting a relocation schedule for moving themonitored animals from one paddock to another. Further, the user canselect or input monitoring parameters, alarm conditions, and dataanalysis processes that provide to the user status and other informationas desired by the user to facilitate herd management. The pre-storedvirtual fence definitions, schedules, and data analysis information issupplied from the network server layer as shown at 405. Current paddockdefinitions, whether newly-input or previously stored, schedule, andmonitoring parameters and alarm conditions are supplied to the networkserver layer as shown at 410, 415, and 420. If stored paddockdefinitions or other stored parameters are used, in some embodiments thestored data can be directly accessed for network layer storage by thenetwork servers, rather than being retransmitted from the user device.

The network layer updates the stored paddock definitions in the tag,shown at 425, together with any schedule definitions or alarm conditiondefinitions. Depending upon the implementation, multiple paddockdefinitions can be stored for future selection or for substantiallyindependent relocation from paddock to paddock. Further, the networklayer can provide selections of data types to be monitored. It will beappreciated that sensor data monitored by one tag may be different fromthat selected for monitoring at another tag. The result is that thesensors selected for monitoring can be specific to a single tag and theassociated animal, the tags associated with some animals, or the tagsassociated with an entire herd.

The paddock definitions and other information stored in the tag are, inmost cases, used either to determine the existence of an alarmcondition, shown at 430, or to contain or move the animal associatedwith the tag, shown at 435. Both functions can involve data from thevarious sensors implemented within the tag. In an embodiment, those datacan include, but are not limited to, GPS data 440, accelerometer data445, magnetometer data 450, Altimeter data 455, temperature data 460,heart rate data 465, battery level 467, and data from other sensors. Thedata is collected and analyzed as appropriate within the microcontrollerof the tag, and provided for the comparisons made at 430 and 435.Depending upon the data selected for monitoring at the user and networkserver levels, collected data in either raw form or after some amount ofprocessing is forwarded to the network server level shown at 475. Thecollected data from one or more tags is then further analyzed ifnecessary, and also if necessary, integrated in a desired mannersufficient to provide a report to the user. Any reporting is thenforwarded to the one or more user device(s) as shown at step 480.

In the event that the data collected at 470 yields an alarm condition at430 when compared with the data and instructions received in the tag at425, the alarm data is forwarded to the network server layer at 485.Depending upon the alarm condition and the current state of instructionsfrom the user, an alarm message or report is developed and forwarded tothe user, as shown at 490. Depending upon the nature of the alarmcondition, the system permits the user to re-engage at step 400, wherethe user can enter new parameters, change instructions, and define newalarm conditions or otherwise respond to the alarm report.

In most cases, the tag associated with any given animal will be in theconfine state. As discussed above, and additionally hereinafter, theconfine state involves monitoring the animal to ensure that the animalstays within the paddock defined by the current virtual fencedefinition. Most the time, especially after a monitored animal hascompleted the training cycle described in connection with FIGS. 1B and1C, no alarm conditions are generated. In this nominal state the systemwill typically be configured to periodically report status informationregarding animal position and general animal health and welfare at aperiodic rate where the periodic rate is a function of how long thebatteries should operate (for example, a 30 to 60 minute reportinginterval). This period of independent or autonomous operation permitsreduction of power usage which can be important in at least someembodiments of the tag where solar recharging of the batteries is atleast partly relied upon to maintain monitoring of the associated animaland communications with the network layer. At the time defined by theschedule either stored in the tag or communicated by the network layer,the tag switches from the confine state to the relocate state. When thatchange occurs, or shortly thereafter as the incremental moves describedin connection with FIG. 3F begin to occur, the tag generate a stimulus,shown at 495, to induce the associated animal to move in the selecteddirection. It will be appreciated that the relocate state can also beentered when it is desired simply to isolate an animal from the herd,such as for breeding, health, or other reasons. In such instances,incremental paddock definitions may not be required to achieve thedesired separation of one (or more) animals from the remainder of theherd.

Referring next to FIG. 4B, the confine process operating within theanimal tag are shown in flow diagram form and can be understood ingreater detail. It will be appreciated that the relocate process issubstantially similar for each incremental paddock definition. Stepsthat correspond to steps in FIG. 4A are given the same referencenumerals for clarity of the relationship. The process starts at 4000,and at 425 one or more paddock definitions are received and stored inthe tag's memory. Boundary zones are either received from the networklayer or calculated locally by the tag's processor. Schedules, if any,are stored, as are any different alert conditions. The process continuesby capturing data from the various sensors 440 through 467. Although theprocess flow for steps 440-467 is shown as a serial flow, the processcan also be performed in parallel, or any combination of parallel andserial data collection. The captured data is collected at stored at 470and, as appropriate to the implementation and instructions from theuser, reported to the network server as shown at 475.

At least some of the sensor data, such as GPS, accelerometer andmagnetometer data is also used to determine whether the animal hasentered the boundary zone, as shown at 4005. If so, a check is made tosee which direction the animal is pointing, or is at the boundary,indicated at 4010. If the animal has not entered the boundary zone, butinstead is within the generally central area of the paddock, the processadvances to step 4010 and then loops back to step 440 for the nextcycle. The report rate refers to the frequency with which the tag sendsinformation back to the server layer; a normal report rate typicallymeans relatively infrequent reports in at least some embodiments. Ingeneral, it is not critical for most herd management issues to knowwhere every animal is at all times. Instead, the general objective insome embodiments is to identify and report risk conditions. Of course,for some extremely high value animals, or high risk environments, morefrequent or even relatively continuous monitoring may be desired, and iswithin the scope of the present invention. For purposes of clarity, theexample of FIG. 4B will assume that the animals being monitored are thetype of herd that requires only infrequent reporting as long as no errorcondition exists.

If the animal has entered the boundary zone, a check is then made at4015 as to the direction the animal is pointing. If the animal is notpointed at the boundary, the process loops back to 4010 and then 440.However, if the animal is pointed at the boundary, a further check ismade at 4020 to determine whether the animal is moving. If so, thenstimulus is applied at step 4025 to induce the animal to return to amore central location within the paddock. In addition, the report rateis set higher than normal, at 4030, to facilitate prompt communicationback to the server in the event human assistance becomes appropriate inthe view of the user. The process then loops back to step 440.

If, on the next cycle, the animal remains moving toward the boundary, afurther check is made at 4035 to determine whether the animal hasreached the boundary, or, in some embodiments, a second boundary zone ofthe sort shown in FIG. 3B. If the animal has not reached the boundary,the existing level of stimulus is continued and the process loops asbefore. If the animal has reached the boundary, an amplified stimulus isapplied to more aggressively induce the animal to return to the centralportion of the paddock, as shown at 4040. The process then loops asbefore. If, on the next cycle, the animal remains at the boundary buthas not moved outside the boundary, as checked at 4045, the amplifiedstimulus is continued. If, however, the animal has moved beyond theboundary the tag discontinues trying to direct the animal in regards foranimal welfare and an error report is generated at 4055 for transmissionto the network layer and ultimately to the user for determination of asolution. In many cases depending on terrain features and geographiclocations of standard farm entities like watering holes it may be thatan animal returns to the venced area on their own. If this happens thealarm ends and the vence is then re-enabled without any need for humaninteraction. The process then loops back to step 440. As discussed abovein connection with FIG. 3A, other alternatives for how to managestimulus when an animal goes out of bounds can also be implemented,depending upon the embodiment.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that, for someembodiments of the tag electronics, minimizing power consumption iscritical. In some such embodiments, even regular use of the sensorsbecomes an unacceptable power drain. In such embodiments of the presentinvention, novel power conservation techniques can be implemented. Forat least some implementations of the present invention, constantknowledge of the position of each monitored animal is not required, aslong as the animals are within the paddock. In addition, in manyenvironments where solar recharging of the battery is required forindependent operation, insufficient battery power exists to power a GPScontinuously. In such circumstances, an embodiment of the invention thatallows the GPS to be off a significant portion of the time can beimplemented. In such an embodiment, prediction of an animal's positionrelative to the virtual fence that defines a paddock can be estimatedstochastically based on the animal's assumed velocity and an assumedstraight line distance to the nearest boundary. In simple terms, such anapproach may be thought of a sparse GPS with assume velocity deadreckoning. The long term mean velocity of an animal can be assumed to bep. It can also be assumed that the monitored animal takes one step persecond, and the magnitude of each step is a Gaussian random uncorrelatedvariable with a standard of a and a variance of a 2. Assuming thecovariance to be zero, the summation of t number of steps equals the sumof the variances of that number of steps, or [σ₁ ²+σ₂ ²+σ₃ ² . . . σ_(t)²]^(1/2) or t^(1/2)*σ. In a similar way, total distance can be estimatedas d(t)=t^(1/2)*σ+t*μ. While no closed form solution for t(d) isapparent, a one second precision on the solution is typically sufficientfor a herd such as cows. Default values of a and p can be, for example1.7 meters and 0, respectively. The default values can be loaded intothe storage associated with the microcontroller of the animal tag, andcan also be developed initially for a specific animal during thetraining state described in FIG. 1B. Expected cattle activity,determined from historical data, can materially assist in refining thevalues of σ and μ.

In an embodiment, such herd action can include resting, grazing,directed movement, standing, undirected movement, drinking, etc., asdiscussed in “Large-scale Livestock Grazing: A Management Tool forNature Conservation”. In addition, seasonal weather changes can beexpected to impact activity levels, as can local land features. Bymonitoring animal activity and herd activity over a period of time,which can be weeks or even longer, refined estimates of σ and p can bedeveloped and supplied to the tag associated with each monitored animal.Those estimates can be animal specific in at least some embodiments, andcan be adjusted from the user device or the network layer to allow foroff-nominal herd or animal activity, and, over time, can be furtherrefined for each paddock of interest. It will be appreciated by thoseskilled in the art that the values of σ and μ need to be conservative inmost embodiments to ensure a high probability that the monitored animalremains within the paddock.

If a process is Gaussian, i.e., normally distributed, then theassociated Random Walk (RW) coefficient can be calculated independent ofthe RW time interval. Actual cattle motion will, in at least someinstances, be substantially more complex. In an embodiment, the motionis modeled by the superposition of multiple random processes such as,for example, Markov process(es)+Random Walk+occasional net herd motion.The superposition of random processes can be reasonably achieved byrecognizing that, at various times (1 min, 5 min, etc.) different randomprocesses will drive stochastic variability. Thus a wide range ofdelta-times & delta-positions are needed to characterize cattle motion.To accumulate this information, the animal tag will, in an embodiment,transmit to the network layer the most current and also prior positionsand their associated times of validity. In addition, for the deadreckoning aspect of such estimations to be essentially worst case, itmust be assumed that the animal is walking directly toward the nearestboundary line. For embodiments of animal tags having a magnetometer,this can be determined and the assumption avoided. To provide the HerdManager relatively constant insight into herd activity levels, in someembodiments it is desirable to assign to each animal tag unique, evenlyspaced talk times for communicating with the network layer.

With reference to FIG. 5 , the operation of σ low power mode for theanimal tag, consistent with the foregoing discussion of Assumed VelocityDead Reckoning, can be better appreciated. The process begins at 500with a wakeup from sleep for both the microcontroller and the GPSmodule, both shown in FIG. 4A. Then, at step 505, the process waits forthe GPS module to get its first fix, with that latency being monitoredby the microcontroller of the animal tag. A check is then made at 510 todetermine whether the Background Timer (BG) measurement is greater thanthe animal tag's (CR) transmit interval. If so, a wireless transmissionfrom the tag is initiated at 515, together with a reset of thebackground timer. If either the BG time is not greater than the animaltag transmit interval as determined at step 510, or following the resetat step 515, a check is made at 520 to see whether the tag's GPS, andthus the monitored animal, is in bounds. If the animal is not in bounds,the process of FIG. 4B is initiated. If the animal is in bounds, theprocess of FIG. 5 advances to step 525 where a new sleep time durationis calculated, and the tag's electronics are set to sleep mode for thedetermined duration. In some embodiments, the process then loops back tostep 500. In an alternative embodiment, the process moves from step 525to 530, where the tag is set to sleep mode for the duration of the sleeptime set in step 525, but that sleep state continues until motion by theanimal is detected at the accelerometer in the tag. Once theaccelerometer detects motion by the animal, the process returns to step500. The sleep intervals can vary with the particular implementation,but for the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 4A, sleep durations of lessthan four seconds, between four and eight seconds, and greater thaneight seconds. In at least some embodiments, when the monitored animalis near a boundary, the GPS is set to “continuous on”, whereas longersleep states can be selected when the animal is more centrally locatedwithin the paddock.

Referring next to FIGS. 6A-6D, the process for adjusting the stimuluslevel in relationship to distance can be better appreciated. The overallprocess can be appreciated from FIG. 6A, where an updated animalposition is determined at step 600. A stimulation level is computed at605 based on the updated position information, followed at 610 byupdating the applied stimulation. A state-dependent time-variant updaterate generator is applied at 615, after which the process loops back to600. FIG. 6B illustrates an embodiment of the update cattle positionstep, 600, of FIG. 6A, where GPS and other sensor data provide inputs toan estimator and interpolator model and the model outputs longitude andlatitude information at a rate of about ten times per second. Referringnext to FIG. 6C, the stimulation level computation of step 605 [FIG. 6A]can be seen to receive the longitude and latitude information for FIG.6B. The process computes the distances to the boundary zone lines 1-n,determines the minimum distance from among those lines, and provides andinput to a shape function generator having an output “sti” [stimulus]supplied to an audio tone generator and an electrical shock stimulatoras shown in FIG. 6D. Vibration stimulus can be initiated directly fromFIG. 4A in an analogous manner.

Referring next to FIGS. 7A-7D, an embodiment of an efficient process fordefining a virtual fence as the perimeter of a paddock can be betterappreciated. In a system where none of wireless bandwidth, messagelength, and power consumption are limiting factors, the definition of avirtual fence can comprise entering longitude and latitude data for eachof the vertices for the paddock. In such an embodiment, the position ofthe animal can be identified by its GPS data, and its distance from thenearest boundary can be calculated based on direct calculation from thelongitude and latitude values.

In some environments, however, optimizing use of wireless bandwidth,message length, or power consumption are significant factors. In suchenvironments, it can be beneficial to conserve message length, forexample, to conserve power consumption during message transmission. Twoaspects of the present invention provide for efficient use of suchresources. In FIG. 7A, ranch 700 can be seen partitioned into aplurality of paddocks 705, most of which are relatively rectangular.However, paddock 710, indicated within the circle, is irregular in shapeand includes a pond along two edges. The paddock 710 is seen in greaterdetail in FIG. 7B. The process for defining the virtual fence for thepaddock 710 begins by the user selecting longitude and latitudecoordinates for the corners of a rectangle that encloses the entirety ofthe paddock. It will be appreciated that, for a rectangle, only theendpoints of a diagonal need to be defined, while other shapes mayrequire additional information.

For purposes of simplicity, a rectangle will serve for illustration. Ina presently preferred arrangement, the rectangle slightly exceeds thearea of the intended paddock, although alternatively one or more of thecorners can reside exactly on the corner of the intended paddock. Oncethe diagonal is defined, the rectangular area is calculated asVA(Lat)−VB(Lat)*VA(Long)−VB(Long). That rectangular area is then filledwith a quantity n evenly distributed points in rows and columns. In anembodiment, the value of n can be either 256 or 64K depending on whatkind of feature resolution is trying to be included within any arbitrarypaddock. If a feature resolution using 256 points is selected, thepoints can be defined as numbers from 0-255 represented as a positivedecimal value encoded as one byte. If higher feature resolution using64K points is preferred, the 64K points can be defined as numbers from0-65535 represented as a positive decimal value encoded as 2 bytes.Typically for most practically sided paddocks an arbitrary shape withreasonable feature resolution can be defined by 10-50 segments.Consequently, it is expected that 256 points will be enough resolutionfor most normal deployment situation, though those skilled in the artwill see that the number of points can vary significantly depending uponthe desired feature resolution and the size of the paddock. As anexample, using a value of 256 for n provides reasonable resolution andprovides a matrix of points which may be thought of as virtual fenceposts.

FIG. 7C illustrates such a matrix of virtual fence posts 715 distributedover the intended paddock 710. The virtual fence posts are each assigneda unique number, for example zero through 255. Since the virtual fenceposts are evenly distributed and the vertices of the rectangle areknown, the longitude and latitude of each of the virtual fence posts isknown relative to the boundaries of the rectangle specified by thecorner vertices VA and VB. The user then identifies the virtual fenceposts that represent the vertices of the intended paddock, with twelvesuch vertices indicated at 720 in FIG. 7D. The virtual fence posts 720thus define the coordinates of a virtual fence enclosing the paddock710. The virtual fence posts outside the virtual fence are discardedwhile the virtual fence posts within the virtual fence providesimplified references for creating a downlink message to the tagsdefining the virtual fence and associated paddock.

The total message size achieved by such a compression algorithm can beexpressed as follows: VA and VB have full resolution GPS latitude andlongitude represented as 4 bytes latitude and 4 bytes longitude timestwo vertices (VA and VB) yields 16 bytes. Then for 256 virtual pointsthat are evenly distributed across the rectangle specified by VA and VBare represented by a single byte representing the number of their post.Consequently, the formula to determine the number of bytes for a givennumber of segments is: (8 bytes for VA latitude/longitude)+(8 bytes forVB latitude/longitude)+(#segments*(1 byte/segment)). Using a 12 segmentarbitrary paddock as an example it would require to transmit: (VA: 4bytes lat+4 bytes long)+(VB: 4 bytes lat+4 bytes long)+(1byte/segment*12segments)=28 bytes. If an uncompressed representation of12 segments were to be sent each segment would consist of lat/long (4bytes/4 bytes) such that you would have 12 segments*(4 bytes lat+4 byteslong)=96 bytes. The proposed algorithm resulted in 28 bytes instead of96 bytes uncompressed yielding a (((96-28)/96)*100)=70.8% reduction inmemory size.

In addition, the use of the virtual fence posts also simplifiesreporting of current livestock position, by enabling the position of amonitored animal to be specified by the horizontal and vertical offsetrelative to either one of the vertices or one of the virtual fenceposts, since the latitude and longitude of all vertices and all virtualfence posts are known at the network layer.

Referring next to FIGS. 8A-8C and 9A-9C, a still further alternativeembodiment for defining virtual fences is illustrated. In particular,FIGS. 8A-8C illustrate an embodiment of a vector-based methodology fordefining virtual fences, where the edges or boundaries of the paddockare either existing physical fences or are virtual fences defined byvectors having magnitude and direction. For convenience of illustration,and without limitation, the operation of the vector approach illustratedin FIGS. 9A-9C will be explained using an analogy to the “right handrule” for analyzing electro-magnetic fields. Thus, as a convention andfor simplicity of explanation, a vector 815 has a direction and alength. By establishing a coordinate system of an axial line 800positioned congruent to the vector 815, and two lines 805 and 810orthogonal to the line 800, one positioned at an beginning of the vector815 and the other at the end of that vector, a set of referenceorientations for developing virtual fences can be appreciated. It willbe understood by those skilled in the art, from the foregoing as well asthe more detailed explanation hereinafter, that the particularcoordinate system taught here is exemplary and not limiting, as thespecific terms used herein are not intended to be limited but insteadhave been selected for ease of understanding. In the “right hand rule”analogy used herein, for the vector 815 the “field” would be going intothe paper, and so this is defined as “inside” for convenience ofexplanation. Thus, to the lower right of vector 815 is “inside” while tothe upper left is “outside”. Points that are beyond the ends of thevector are “off-axis” and either inside or outside depending upon whichside of the line 800 they fall on.

Using the conventions of FIG. 8A, and now referring specifically to FIG.8B, an embodiment of the establishment and operation of a paddockdefined by vector-based virtual fences can be understood. To assist withunderstanding, assume that the point 820 is a tagged cow in accordancewith the invention. Then, assume that a centroid point 823, which can beselected either arbitrarily or by any convenient means, provides areference point for vectors 825-850. Note that, using the vectors arejoined end to end, and the directions show that the vectors, each ofwhich represents a paddock edge, are arranged in the clockwisedirection. Thus, the interior space is “inside” the area defined by thevectors, and thus forms the paddock.

Next, consider the location of the cow of interest, indicated at 820.Applying the convention of FIG. 8A, and starting with vector 825, it canbe seen that the cow 820 is to the right of vector 825 but beyond itsend point. Thus the point 820 is “off-axis inside”, as shown by thelegend at the right of the figure. With respect to vectors 830, 835, 840and 845, however, the point 820 is to the left, and also beyond theirrespective end points, and thus the point 820 is off-axis outsiderelative to those vectors, again as indicated by the legend. But, forvector 850, the point 820 is to the right of that vector according tothe right hand rule convention, since the arrow points downward. But thepoint is still beyond the end points of the vector 850, and so the point820 is said to be off-axis inside relative to that vector. Finally,comparing the point 820 to vector 855, it can be seen that the point isto the right of the left-pointing vector 855, and within the end pointsof that vector. Thus, the point 820 is said to be inside the vector 855,again in accordance with the legend.

These relationships impact how the cow is monitored and guided, asdiscussed in more detail hereinafter. In addition to determining whethera given cow is inside or outside under the coordinate system, it isimportant to understand which vector, or paddock edge, is to be used todetermine whether an action should be taken to manage the cow. For thisdetermination, the concept of “edge cancellation” is helpful. Thus, forFIG. 8B, the edge vector 840 is nearer the cow 820 than the edge vector855, and thus the vector 840 “cancels” any effect the vector 855 mighthave on the management of the cow 820.

FIG. 8C offers a different scenario, as to both the coordinate system ofFIG. 8A and the concept of cancellation. The cow at point 860 can beseen to be within the paddock defined by the edge vectors 865-895, allarranged in clockwise order to define the interior of the paddock. Acentroid 863 provides the reference point. From the above discussion, itcan be seen that the point 860 is inside vectors 865, 880, 885, 890, and895. It is off-axis inside vector 870, and outside vector 875. However,due to vector 880 being located between vector 875 and the cow at 860,edge vector 880 cancels edge vector 875.

In the foregoing discussions, the presence of centroids 823 and 863 havebeen mentioned. In some embodiments, for example those, a singlereference point relative to which the edge vectors are defined permitsimproved scaling as well as efficient message packing. The centroid canbe any convenient point, and, as shown by the points 823 and 863, can beeither inside the paddock or outside.

As with the paddocks of FIGS. 3A-3B, each of the paddocks of theembodiment of FIGS. 8A-8C includes a zone within the boundaries of thepaddock where a monitored animal will be stimulated to move back towardthe safe inner portion of the paddock. More than one zone may beprovided, as shown in FIG. 3B and revisited in connection with FIG. 9A.However, for convenience of explanation of the vector approach, thoseshock zones have been omitted from FIGS. 8A-8C. A benefit of the edgevector approach of FIGS. 8A-8C is the ability to allow monitored animalsto pass through an edge vector in one direction, without being shockedor otherwise stimulated, while preventing them from passing through theedge vector in the other direction without being shocked, etc. The useof “inside” and “outside”, together with monitoring the direction oftravel of the monitored animal, allows the edge vector to work as aone-way gate.

The concept of a one-way gate, as well as multiple stimulus zones asimplemented in an embodiment of a paddock in accordance with FIGS.8A-8C, can be appreciated from FIG. 9A. A ranch 900 offers a variety ofterrain, including various contours that may be less friendly to grazinganimals than others. A paddock, defined by centroid 901 and a pluralityof edge vectors 903-905-907-909-911, all arranged clockwise, isconfigured to map well onto the terrain. The paddock typically will notcover all available terrain, although it could. Within the paddock, thesystem of the present invention configures a first stimulus zone 913,the boundary of which is shown essentially as a scaled down version ofthe paddock boundaries. A cow entering the first stimulus zone 913 mayreceive an auditory or haptic stimulus to encourage the cow to turn backtoward the center. If the cow continues moving toward the boundary, itenters a second stimulus zone, similar to that described in connectionwith FIGS. 3A-3B. At that point the cow is stimulated with either alouder audio signal, a more aggressive haptic signal, an electric shock,or some combination thereof.

But, if the cow continues past the boundary, in some embodiments it canbe desirable to cease the stimulus in an effort to encourage the cow orother animal to return to within the boundary. An example is a cow thatis suddenly startled, perhaps by a snake, and flees the immediate areadespite the stimulus. As herd animals, most cows will return fairly soonto the rest of the herd on their own. Yet, if the cow is stimulatedadversely upon crossing the boundary, the cow may be discouraged fromreturning to the herd. The tag 110 tracks the direction of the cow'smovement, and is also aware of the boundary. By recognizing that the cowis going from “outside” the boundary to “inside” the boundary, the logicwithin the tag determines not to stimulate the cow as it makes its wayback to the herd. However, once the cow is inside the boundary, orwithin the boundary plus some arbitrary “safe entry” zone, the logic ofthe tag reactivates the stimulus zone checks and will reapply stimulusas appropriate to ensure the cow remains within the paddock.

Referring next to FIG. 9B, another advantage of the edge vector approachcan be better appreciated. In particular, FIG. 9B shows a first“inclusion” paddock, but also shows a second “exclusion” paddock. Thus,edge vectors 929-947, all advancing in a clockwise direction, define an“inclusion” paddock as discussed above for FIGS. 8B-8C and 9A. And, asnoted before, although not shown for simplicity and clarity, one or morestimulus zones exist within the inclusion portion of the paddock.However, vectors 951-959 advance in a counterclockwise direction. Thus,using the right had rule, the interior of the shape is “outside”, andthe stimulus zone surrounding the shape defined by those vectors is onthe outside of the shape, not the inside. Thus, a cow coming from insidevector 929 and approaching a point on vector 953 will be stimulatedbefore reaching the vector 953 in an effort to keep the cow in the spacebetween the two shapes. This is helpful because it is often desirable toled cattle graze over a large area that includes one or more dangerousstructures, such as a bog or similar high risk area. By excluding thathigh risk area, the permissible paddock area can be large and allow thecattle to roam and graze more freely. As with the other vector-basedpaddocks, a centroid 927 provides a reference point for the paddock ofFIG. 9B.

FIG. 9C integrates virtual fences with physical fences, to permit afarmer or rancher to take best advantage of expensive existinginfrastructure. It is well understood in the industry that many miles offence already exist. By being able to create a paddock that takesadvantage of such infrastructure, while also leveraging the advantagesof the virtual fence, a more efficient use of the ranch land and relatedresources is made possible. Thus, for FIG. 9C, a paddock is defined byedges 965, 967, 969, 971, and 973. However, edge 967 is a physicalfence, as shown by the dashed line and no vector direction. Theremaining vectors advance clockwise, so the paddock is an inclusionpaddock. As will be discussed hereinafter, the server of the systemstores whether an edge is a physical boundary or a virtual boundary.However, in some embodiments, it may be desirable to establish astimulus zone on the approach to a physical boundary, essentially thesame as for a virtual boundary. This is particularly true if thephysical boundary is not a physical fence, but a dangerous landscapefeature such as a cliff.

FIG. 9D illustrates a still further advantage of the edge vectorapproach, where two paddocks share a single edge or boundary. Edgevectors as discussed above form a first paddock 973 with a stimulus zone975. Likewise, edge vectors form a second paddock 977 with stimuluszones 979. Edge vector 981 forms a common boundary, and so the edgevector is double ended. Typically, direction can be stored in memory asa single byte, such that reversing just a single byte allows efficientmanagement of movement of cattle across the boundary established by edgevector 981. For example, by changing vector 981 so that it only pointsup, cattle are free to roam into paddock 977 in accordance with theone-way gate operation described above. But, change vector 981 to pointonly down, and the cattle are free to flow the other direction, yetstopped from going back.

The movement of cattle across such boundaries is helpful in moving aherd from one paddock to another paddock where both are defined by edgevectors. This operation can be better appreciated from FIGS. 10A-10G. InFIG. 10A, paddock 983 is illustrated with associated stimulus zone 985just inside the paddock boundary, along with paddock 987 and associatedstimulus zone 989 just inside that boundary. Cattle are typically withinthe paddock but not in the stimulus zone. To move the cattle frompaddock 983 into paddock 987, the process begins by enlarging paddock983, and also enlarging shock zone 985, both in the direction of thetarget paddock 987, as shown in FIG. 10B. Next, as shown in FIG. 10C,the paddock 983 is incrementally increased again, and the shock zone 985is again enlarged in the direction of the target paddock. This processis repeated in FIG. 10D, to the point that the two paddocks share acommon boundary. Then, in FIG. 10E, the boundary between paddocks 983and 987 is removed, or set to be a one-way gate, such that the cattlecan move into target paddock 987. The shock zone 985 is again increasedto drive the cattle into the new paddock. Next, as shown in FIG. 10F,the shock zone 985 is again increased. Finally, as shown in FIG. 10F,the shock zone 985 has been increased to the point that all of thecattle are now within the shock zone 989 of paddock 987. At this point,the paddock 983 and associated shock zone 985 can either be deactivatedor can be restored to its original size. It will be appreciated by thoseskilled in the art, given the teachings herein, that the foregoingprocess could also have been achieved by enlarging target paddock 987 inthe direction of source paddock 983, and then reducing the size of thetarget paddock to induce the cattle to move into the intended space ofthe target paddock. Those skilled in the art will recognize, too, againgiven the teachings herein, that the entire source paddock or the entiretarget paddock could have been moved, similar to the operations shown inFIG. 3C-3F herein. The foregoing discussion is intended to include,without limitation, all such variations on the movement of a herd frompaddock to paddock.

Referring next to FIG. 11 , the movements shown graphically in FIGS.10A-10G can be appreciated in state diagram form. In particular, themove starts at 1100, typically as the result of a schedule downloadedinto the tags in advance from the system servers running the managementsoftware. At that point the management zone is set to the requested movelength. The boundary of the shock zone is expanded by a desired amount,for example enough to place one or more animals within 25% of the soundboundary, as shown at 1105. A cool down period follows, shown at 1110,after which the state of the animals are checked to see if the move iscomplete. If so, the process terminates as shown at 1110. However, mostmoves will require multiple iterations, and so the process continues at1120 where the shock zone is further increased, again by, for example,25%, to induce the herd to move to the new paddock. When the herd movessufficiently, the device status indication transitions from stimulus[sound] to tracking. Once the move is completed, the management zone isadjusted and the process terminates as discussed above.

In some embodiments, it can be desirable to monitor the heading of thecow or other animal as a factor in determining whether a stimulus shouldbe applied. FIG. 12 illustrates the progressive movement of a monitoredanimal as it moves from the central portion of a paddock, beginning at1200, into the stimulus zone. For simplicity of explanation, the paddockis assumed to be aligned straight north. In an embodiment, no stimulusis applied while in the paddock and not in the stimulus zone. However,to better ensure that the monitored animal stays within the safe portionof the paddock, if the animal enters the stimulus zone and their headingis within, for example, +/−110 degrees of a boundary, stimulus isapplied. The particular range of headings for application of shock canvary depending upon the shape of the paddock, the particular animal, andsimilar factors. Thus, for the animal of FIG. 12 , once the animalenters to shock zone as shown at 1210, stimulus is applied. At thispoint, the animal either goes straight, turns right, or turns left. Thedecision to apply shock is, in an embodiment based upon a determinationof the distance of the tag from the closest edge. The decision can bemade by the tag's logic in some embodiments, or, in other embodiments,can be determined at the server. In the example of the cow's movement inFIG. 12 , it can be seen that, if the cow turns right, as shown at 1215,it approaches the boundary but begins turning, as shown by the arrowindicating actual cow direction. The stimulus, or edge pressure, appliedto the cow causes the cow to turn further, again as indicated by thearrow at 1220.

Should the cow turn left, toward the corner of the paddock as shown at1225, slight movements of the cow may cause a change in which edge isclosest. In some embodiments, and depending upon the shape of thatportion of the paddock, the headings for which shock is applied may becombined, but in other environments the decision to apply stimulus ornot is based only on which edge is closest.

With the foregoing in mind, the operation of the system as a whole, fromsetup to herd movement, can now be better appreciated. Setup for a newenterprise starts with creation of an organization/enterprise/ranch/farmin a server such as a LoRa server, which in turn causes the system toautomatically assign a unique ID for that enterprise. Then one or morenodes are configured. Node configuration can involve selection offrequency band [e.g., 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 700 MHz, etc.), maximumpermissible power, and security key configuration. The node ID's andsecurity keys are loaded into the communications server, for example aLoRa server as discussed hereinabove. The devices will appear in theherd management software once added to the LoRa server and powered up.

In addition, in an embodiment, tags or collars can be added to theserver at this point, or can be added later. Like the nodes, thosedevices will not be recognized by the server until they are powered up.Tags/collars will initially show up with a default GPS location, but,once the tag obtains a reliable GPS fix, the displayed location of eachtag will reflect the GPS data for that tag. Configuration of a LoRaserver comprises setting a device profile, which can include OTAA,regional network server links, MAC version, regional version, MAX EIRP,among other things. In some embodiments, an application profile iscreated, which can include herd management routing. Adding of devicescan comprise adding a device profile together with adding the associatedsecurity application key. User setup involves assigning a user accountto a farm. In an embodiment, each account is associated with only onefarm at a time, but can be switched among farms. The enterprise profilefor each farm can be unique, such that switching among farms can resultin different orientation screens.

In an embodiment, setting up and using the herd management softwaretypically starts with a “Farm View” page and provides access to accountmanagement, enterprise farm management, and history. More relevant tothe foregoing discussion is that that page also provides an interfacefor managing paddocks, herds, and tags/collars. Adding a paddock can beperformed in multiple ways, including manually clicking on points on amap, using latitude and longitude to establish vertices, or importingpre-planned maps from third party services such as Google Earth. A mapor satellite view can be displayed so that the terrain can be reviewedwhile establishing the vector beginning and end points.

Paddocks are, as discussed herein, enclosed polygons and can either bean inclusion paddock or an exclusion paddock (see FIG. 9B). Likewise, apaddock can comprise both physical and virtual edges (see FIG. 9C). Thetotal number of edges a paddock can have depends upon the desiredimplementation, where considerations of power, memory and bandwidthlimitations can be important. In an embodiment, an exemplary paddock canhave sixteen edges. Once the paddock edges are defined, the paddock isassigned a unique name within the group of paddocks. In an embodiment,the width of the management zone, or shock zone, is set, for example tenmeters. The type of paddock, inclusion or exclusion, is also set, andeach edge is identified as either physical or virtual. In someembodiments, a choice of setting a management zone for a physicalboundary is also provided. Likewise, a paddock may be entirely physicalboundaries. The paddock edges can be edited/modified in any convenientmanner, such as click and drag. The “Farm View” display can beconfigured to display one or more paddocks, depending upon theparticular implementation.

A herd is entered into the herd management software as the result of oneor more tags being added to the server, and thereafter being powered upas discussed above. Each tag/collar has a unique ID and is affixed toits respective animal, and the location of each collar is displayed inthe Farm View once accurate GPS data is received following power up ofthe tag. In an embodiment, each tag can store a plurality of paddockdefinitions, or slots, for example 16 different paddocks. The tag canalso store one or more schedules for movement of that animal from onepaddock to another. Typically that movement will occur together with theherd the animal is associated with.

Once the group of collars that comprises a herd have returned accurateGPS data, those cattle appear on the herd management display for thatherd, typically within a paddock. Tags typically can be in only one herdat a time, but can be moved from herd to herd individually or incombination with other tags/animals. Herds can be combined, split,subdivided, edited or added to.

Within the herd management software, herds are assigned to paddocks, Inan embodiment, each herd can have associated therewith a plurality ofpaddock slots, for example, sixteen or any other suitable number. Eachpaddock slot can be empty or occupied, and each paddock slot can havemultiple states, such as “current state” or “next state.” A paddockwithin each slot can either be “active” or “inactive”. Each paddock canhave associated therewith a schedule, defining when the herd associatedwith that paddock will be moved into or out of the paddock. Virtualfences can be set to active or inactive, either immediately (i.e.,“Now”) or according to a schedule.

To manage a herd, the paddock definitions and schedules for that herdmust be downloaded to all of the associated tags. Given the power andbandwidth constraints necessary for the tags to operate for an extendedperiod, typically measured in at least months and preferably years, insome embodiments downloading can tens of seconds per device, withsuitable error correction to ensure accurate transmission. In someembodiments, the herd management software can display a heat map, whicheffectively shows the concentration of the herd. In some embodiments,selected groups or individual animals can be displayed on the heat map.

Those skilled in the art will also recognize that, if wirelessbandwidth, memory, and power are sufficient such that none limit systemperformance, in an embodiment a grid of virtual fence posts can becreated for an entire ranch. In addition, in some embodiments, thespacing between adjacent fence posts need not be uniform as long as therelative location of one virtual fence post to another is stored in asuitable manner. Such an approach can be helpful where the terrain of apaddock varies materially such as trees, rock formations, or cliffs.

Having fully described a preferred embodiment of the invention andvarious alternatives, those skilled in the art will recognize, given theteachings herein, that numerous alternatives and equivalents exist whichdo not depart from the invention. It is therefore intended that theinvention not be limited by the foregoing description, but only by theappended claims.

We claim:
 1. An animal management system for confining one or moremonitored animals comprising a tag affixed to each of the monitoredanimals, the tag comprising a processor, memory, a communicationsinterface and a means for stimulating the associated animal, a serverfor establishing a plurality of paddock definitions wherein each paddockcomprises a plurality of edges wherein each edge can be either physicalor defined by a vector, and a communications link for communicating tothe tag of each monitored animal one or more of the plurality of paddockdefinitions whereby the monitored animal is confined to the paddock. 2.A method for managing the movements of a monitored animal comprisingestablishing a first paddock by defining a first plurality of vectors,where enclosing a first space with the first plurality of vectors alladvancing in a first sequential direction defines the outer perimeter ofan area within which the monitored animal is permitted to move,establishing a second paddock by defining a second plurality of vectors,where enclosing a second space with the second plurality of vectors, alladvancing in a second sequential direction different from the firstsequential direction defines the outer perimeter of an area from whichthe animal is excluded, and downloading the first and second paddockdefinitions to a tag affixed to the monitored animal and stimulating theanimal to not move outside the first space while remaining outside thesecond space.
 3. A method for managing the movements of a monitoredanimal comprising storing, in a device having a processor and memory, arepresentation of a shape comprised of connecting in a single sequentialdirection a plurality of vectors, each having a length and whereby thetip of each vector in the sequence connects to the tail of the nextvector in the sequence until the tip of the last such vector connects tothe tail of the first such vector, and wherein one side of the sequenceof vectors is “inside” and the opposite side is “outside”, storing, inthe device, a management zone of a predetermined width and positionedadjacent to the inside of the shape, and stimulating, with the deviceand in response to a monitored animal entering the management zone, themonitored animal to move inward from management zone.